Vivek Sankaran

Vivek Sankaran advocates for the rights of children and parents involved in child welfare proceedings and brings extensive experience handling issues of abuse and teaching others about these issues. He approaches every situation with humanity, empathy, and compassion for all those he works with, while always prioritizing fairness and impartiality. Vivek seeks to achieve the correct result under the law while also ensuring that the process is compassionate for those involved.

As the director of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic and the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, Vivek has represented hundreds of children and parents in complex family law settings such as foster care, custody, and guardianship proceedings. In addition to having extensive trial experience, he has represented families in appellate proceedings at the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court.

Vivek has been a professor at the University of Michigan Law School since 2005 and routinely conducts state and national trainings for groups including the Michigan State Court Administrative Office, Casey Family Programs, the National Center for State Courts, and the American Bar Association to improve access to justice in the child welfare system.

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Previous Experience

Vivek is the owner of Wolverine Advocacy and Design Solutions, which provides child welfare consulting and training to courts, lawyers, and child welfare agencies. He was previously the director of the University of Michigan Law School’s Detroit Center for Family Advocacy, which provided legal advocacy and social work services to low-income families facing issues related to foster care placement and prolonged stays as well as training and experiences to law students. At the Michigan Children's Law Center, he served as a staff attorney that provided legal services to children in the trial and appellate courts.

Presentations & Publications

Vivek has written numerous articles and edited several books focused on improving the child welfare system. Most recently, he co-authored Representing Parents in Child Welfare Cases: Advice and Guidance for Family Defenders, the first nationwide book for family defense lawyers and co-edited the third edition of Child Welfare Law and Practice.

Awards & Honors
Vivek’s exceptional work as an educator has led him to earn the 2023 John W. Reed Michigan Lawyer Legacy Award from the State Bar of Michigan, presented to an educator whose influence on lawyers has raised the quality of legal practice in the state, as well as the inaugural Faculty Award for Dedication to World-Class Clinical & Experiential Teaching, Students, and the Spirit of Michigan Law in 2023. In 2011, he was named Michigan’s Parent Attorney of the Year.